Quoting: JuliusAs for the fantasy console: why not build something on the awesome Love2D lua framework [External Link]? Some custom BASIC based thing seems really uninteresting to me at least.

I saw the Lutro [External Link] core a while back, which tries to follow the Love2D API. It sounds like it is still experimental though.

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This game reminds me a bit of Carnage Heart, which I found pretty fun.

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One cool thing I learned after buying this game is that the Steam release includes a file called LinuxDRMFree.rar which, as you might expect, contains a full copy of the game DRM-free.

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This does seem like an interesting option. My internet options are not great right now, so I don't think it would work for me. I could see it being useful for people who don't already have a powerful gaming computer lying around.

If you do have such a computer, and would like a similar convenience, you could setting up Tightvnc and GamingAnywhere on it. That's a free and open source option.

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I have read there is already a mod, "Midas Magic", who's free version was updated to pester the player with pop-ups to buy the paid version. At a 4% chance every cast.

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One thought, I had, is that this could about making sure people are presented with and accept the EULA whenever they install the game. Because if you can just extract the game, you might not look at it.

Quoting: TerynFirst it was the lack of always providing tarballs because the Lucasarts games have a EULA that they packed into the .debs for Ubuntu and Mint. They were ultimately pointless, because it likely still could have been inserted into a script for the tarballs as in a .deb just as easily. (eularead=1, anybody?)

This could be related. Reminds me of the EULA prompt for the Microsoft font package.

So, this could have more to do with legal reasons.

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This doesn't sound effective at all in protecting a user from a manipulated installer, if that's the intention. Even if a bad actor couldn't insert something in the legitimate installer, provided they are determined enough, they could put together a custom installer that looks and feels nearly the same. It sounds more like some silly measure needed to appease certain publishers.

If it does become applied to all installers, I'll be glad I back up everything locally after a purchase. Hopefully a solution to this incompatibility can be worked out. The vast majority of older games seem to work perfectly with Wine, so it would be quite unfortunate for them to be locked away, from Linux users, by the installer of all things.

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Backup for game saves is a bit tricky. What I do is list save folders in a file line by line and have a python script archive everything in a tar.gz file.

I don't have a huge amount of games on this system, so I haven't worried too much about folder pollution. As a test, I did try launching one game from a script that exports a new $HOME and that did seem to work (after some copy paste). So, at least for some games, that does seem to be one way to solve the organization problem.

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This was a pretty interesting talk. It was quite informative and revealed a lot of details I hadn't seen before. Notably:

• Steam Runtime maintains binary compatibility for common libraries separate of the distro
• There are automatic updates and they are handled at shutdown
• Steam game crash handling, via overlay, is implemented
• Native TV timings are preserved throughout
• Has a pretty boot sequence
• Valve is contributing to better Intel graphics performance
• Improved Xbox 360 controller support added, and out-of-the-box support for more controllers being worked on

I'm a bit surprised other game news sites haven't picked it up yet.

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I can't blame them. A lot can be done with that money, and I'm sure Notch never anticipated his game getting so crazy popular. Now he can move on to other projects and perhaps have some stress lifted from his shoulders.

I'm certainly glad Minecraft existed. It had an effect on my life, perhaps a bit indirectly. If it wasn't for Minecraft, I wouldn't have had that wonderful experience, early in my college years, writing plugins for a Minecraft Classic server. I could have graduated a Physics major, instead, if it weren't for that. So, thank you Mr. Persson.

The next few years are going to be interesting, if only to see how Microsoft intends to make back the $2.5 billion.

Edit: clarification

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